In Edmonton, Jordan Binnington made 23 saves in a Saturday matinee, to help the St Louis Blues defeat the Oilers, 2-0.
“It was a good afternoon in Edmonton,” Binnington said. “We have a good team and worked both ways, we did a great job tonight, a full 60 minutes. We were disciplined and it was good to find a way to win in these tight games too.”
Torey Krug scored in the first period to give the Blues a 1-0 lead.
“Whenever we have No. 50 [Binnington] in the pipes, there is always a chance of [a shutout],” Krug said. “But we had a great game plan, attention to detail. We got one early and we were able to shut out their time and space, and our guys did a great job.”
Krug’s goal came on the only power play of the day for St Louis.
“It was two good teams in a tight-checking game,” Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl said. “They scored two goals and we couldn’t get one. They are a good team, that’s a playoff team. They have won before, they know how to play a tight-checking game. So did we, I thought, for the most part. But we were a little sloppy in some areas.”
Justin Faulk sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 62 seconds left in the game for the 2-0 final.
“It was a real good effort by everybody on the team,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “I think we limited their rush attack by having a good [third forward] in tight. We checked tonight, that was the difference and our special teams were 100 percent (1-for-1 each on the power play and the penalty kill).”
Edmonton was scoreless in their only power play chance.
“St. Louis comes with a certain style, right from the start, and you feel that right away,” Kulak said. “You know they are not going to play run-and-gun with you and just open things up. They are going to play a certain way and try to limit your chances and wait for you to make mistakes, so that is what they did tonight.”
Jack Campbell made 20 saves, in the Oilers loss.
“It was a 1-0 hockey game with a power-play goal against, in the first few minutes of the game,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought we had some good chances right off the bat that we didn’t score on, and then we took an O-zone penalty and it ended up in the back of our net. They made one more play than we did and they found themselves up 1-0 on the road. It was two good hockey teams that played a tight game and that one moment of the game led to us not winning it.”
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